iPhone 5 crashed, Apple says it's out of warranty

My iPhone 5 abruptly crashed yesterday. I went to the Apple store to have it looked into.

The "genius" took my phone in the back, returned 15 minutes later saying the phone had been opened by a non-Apple technician because its missing a screw and there are finger print markings on the inside of the phone, which voided my warrant and quickly hops on the macbook showing me repair shops that can fix the issue.

I was flabbergasted!, because this was the first time the phone was being opened. He claimed maybe a cousin or someone opened my phone; what?!?

Has this happened to anyone? How do you defend against something like this? You don't know what happened in the 15 minutes the phone was not in your possession, so it could be that those finger prints were an Apple technicians finger prints. Or they pulled a screw out and are using that as a way to not fix the issue. But it seemed like its their word against yours. Unfortunately I did not demand to see a manager, which I think I should have.

I'm livid and not thinking correctly right now, but what would be the best way to handle this issue?

Hmm, this story seems a little weird. First, it is from a first time poster. Secondly, you didnt tell us how long you had it. Third, a genius would not whip out his macbook to look up sites for repairs. Fourth, they use ipads. And out of the blue say cousin?

I'm a first time poster because I haven't actively participated on MacRumors discussions. But I din't know that that was a requirement to get help from other users on here.

Secondly, I was seated at one of the work stations browsing the internet on the macbooks while they looked at my phone. Yes, the genius had an iPad but decided to use the macbook to show me the repair shops.

Thirdly, yes exactly my thoughts, when the genius out of the blue claimed maybe my cousin opened my phone?!

I bought the phone last December and have had it for 4 months.

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Blueroom, I bought the phone from the Grand Central location in New York.

My iPhone 5 abruptly crashed yesterday. I went to the Apple store to have it looked into.

The "genius" took my phone in the back, returned 15 minutes later saying the phone had been opened by a non-Apple technician because its missing a screw and there are finger print markings on the inside of the phone, which voided my warrant and quickly hops on the macbook showing me repair shops that can fix the issue.

I was flabbergasted!, because this was the first time the phone was being opened. He claimed maybe a cousin or someone opened my phone; what?!?

Has this happened to anyone? How do you defend against something like this? You don't know what happened in the 15 minutes the phone was not in your possession, so it could be that those finger prints were an Apple technicians finger prints. Or they pulled a screw out and are using that as a way to not fix the issue. But it seemed like its their word against yours. Unfortunately I did not demand to see a manager, which I think I should have.

I'm livid and not thinking correctly right now, but what would be the best way to handle this issue?

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a) Everything they do out the back is on CCTV. They wouldn't mess up your phone and then tell you that you've done it.

b) Unless the phone had actually been messed with, why would they spend more time (15-20 mins) and enduring the guaranteed backlash of telling you your phone was beyond repair, instead of swapping it (takes < 5 mins). They don't use that reasoning to just not swap a phone.

c) There must have been something external which triggered them to look inside (like rounded off pentalobe screws). They don't check phones internally for damage unless they are suspicious.

d) They wont be allowed to recommend other repair shops for tampered phones - it's more than their job's worth. They can tell you to google it, but that's about it.

The above all make me believe that this story is BS. Sorry op, but unless you've tampered with your phone (or had someone else repair it), I don't believe a word of this.

Hmm, this story seems a little weird. First, it is from a first time poster. Secondly, you didnt tell us how long you had it. Third, a genius would not whip out his macbook to look up sites for repairs. Fourth, they use ipads. And out of the blue say cousin?

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actually I've seen a genius on a macbook....he synced my iPhone in front of me to a mac book

Yeah I've seen them use MacBooks a few times too. My question is how is your phone out of warranty? All iPhones come with a one year warranty and the iPhone 5 hasn't even been out for a year yet.

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It would be under warranty, but faults wouldn't be repaired, if they have been caused by someone else. If someone opens their iPhone, looks inside and damages it, then obviously Apple isn't going to fix that. _If_ that is what happened, of course, and if they have proof.

Obvious question to the OP: Did you open the phone, or is there someone who could have opened the phone? And where did the phone come from?

Another question that should always be asked with warranties: Where in the world are you? Any advice that might be helpful to people in country A might be useless to people in country B and vice versa.

We could also use a little context here... "crashed," how? Apps crash from time to time, and I even had an iPhone 4 that locked up a couple times, but that's hardly anything that rises to the level of bringing back a phone to an Apple store for repair. If it's really bad, you usually just restore from a backup or set up as new, and that's the end of it.

So, did the phone get stuck in DFU mode? Is it in a reboot loop? What's going on, specifically?

Also, there's pretty much no incentive for an Apple employee to deny a warranty claim, except for there actually being damage. Staff aren't penalized or anything for doing legitimate warranty replacements... they just grab a white box replacement and do a switch, usually. A genius having his own fingerprints on the inside or losing a screw are also things that happen now and then, and not something they would need to cover up. Repair histories are logged for each device, and they have spare parts like screws back there to replace misplaced ones.

A friend of mine once even got her out of warranty, broken iPhone replaced for free because a genius messed up and accidentally caused more damage when trying to work with her phone. He fessed up to it and handed her a fresh white-box replacement, no charge, even after initially telling her there would be a fee. Apparently, even those occasional screwups aren't anything an Apple genius bar tech needs to stress over.

This is why, OP, your story seems a little out there. There's pretty much no incentive for a Genius to make something up and deny you a warranty repair without a legitimate reason.

Hmm, this story seems a little weird. First, it is from a first time poster. Secondly, you didnt tell us how long you had it. Third, a genius would not whip out his macbook to look up sites for repairs. Fourth, they use ipads. And out of the blue say cousin?

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This is what I can't stand about some of the posters here. Why do you have to be so suspicious? What does the poster have to gain by posting a bogus problem?

Seems like the response the poster gave to your ridiculous accusations is very reasonable, and something you might have thought of if you'd taken a few minutes to think about it.

I've had the iPhone since 3S and have returned two due to odd software issues or whatever. Both times they gave me a new iPhone without a slight bit of hassle. My wife has returned one iPhone and she received a new iPhone without hassle.

The employees at Apple stores do not care if they need to give you a replacement, it's pennies to them and Apple's business model is geared towards making customers happy. Now, in your situation I would believe the employee. He probably did see something odd going on. The folks in Apple stores don't get paid enough to care or make stuff up. They would rather just give you a new iPhone and send your old one back for refurbishing.

As for you being a new poster here, yes it is odd when a new user's first post is a complaint or story that is out of the ordinary. It happens all the time and they are normally trolls looking to start trouble.

This is what I can't stand about some of the posters here. Why do you have to be so suspicious? What does the poster have to gain by posting a bogus problem?

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More than likely, the problem is a real one- their phone is out of warranty as the Apple employee said, due to their own meddling inside it, and they came here asking for a way to get around that.

Unfortunately, threads and questions like this are common enough and it's generally easy enough to tell who is being completely honest and who isn't.

What would they have to gain? If they genuinely have a phone issue, they're looking for a way to get around the system to fix a problem they likely caused. If they don't, they're simply trolling trying to create a stir... which, considering all the replies, they've somewhat succeeded.

Geeze, cut the OP some slack. Story seems a bit weird, but different from other BS threads by intentional trolling. If anything, maybe the OP did try to open the phone and somehow damaged it in the process. And he was hoping maybe he could slip it past the genius and get a replacement.

OP, what exactly happened to ur phone? Give some details and maybe someone can help. I just can't see a genius intentionally jacking up ur phone to screw u over.

I had the iPhone 4 for about three months and it kept crashing on me. It would crash almost once a day, obviously a little annoying. I decided to take it to my local Apple store. A lady took my iPhone and hooked it up to an iPod and ran a test. I was amazed what the test showed. It displayed every little detail of information about my iPhone including how many times each app was open and how many crashes (and when the crashes were) the iPhone had.

She didn't even open the iPhone. She just went to the back room and brought out a new box and said "You backed up your iPhone before coming here right? If so, here take this new one.".

"A screw was missing " comment tells me you should have noticed that when you got the phone. I look over my expensive property very carefully when purchased and make note of any issues than tell someone. Missing screw would be easy to see. I say bogus on this story at this time

The warranty is NOT void if the phone has been opened by the consumer.

This is in ABSOLUTE direct violation of US warranty law.

The law actually specifically states that they cannot deny you your warranty unless they can PROVE not just verbalize that your tampering has CAUSED the malfunction or has made it unreasonably expensive to repair.

I would print out the relevant part of the law and then ask them to either:

- Clearly Break the Law (on Video?)
- Fix your Phone
- Show you Clear and Absolute Proof and not just Guesses that Anything You Did Broke the Phone

"A screw was missing " comment tells me you should have noticed that when you got the phone. I look over my expensive property very carefully when purchased and make note of any issues than tell someone. Missing screw would be easy to see. I say bogus on this story at this time

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Are you serious? You know how small the screws on a phone are. Who buys a new phone out of the box and start looking for loose screws.

It reminds me of the time I took my brand new Galaxy S3 in because it kept bursting into flames and scaring little children (what doesn't?). The dude at the Samsung store whipped out a Lenovo IdeaPad (no idea why, just go with it), and he said it was happening all over with the SGS3 and that it was working "normally".

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